New Google hardware was among the several announcements at its annual Google I/O developers conference.
Google Home, out later this year, will be a physical device, like Amazon’s Echo, that can play music, tee up movies, give you information, and control all sorts of stuff just by talking to it.
“It’s like having a voice activated remote control to the real world whenever you need it,” says Mario Queiroz of Google Product Management.
On the Virtual Reality front, Cardboard has been an inexpensive way for anyone to jump into VR quickly. This fall Google is aiming to bring higher quality, even more immersive VR content to you via your phone through a platform called Daydream. It includes VR optimized phones, new headsets, and perhaps most notably, a Daydream remote.
“We wanted to create a controller that’s optimized for VR that’s both powerful and intuitive,” says Clay Bavor of Google VR. “We built in orientation sensors so it knows where it’s pointing, how it’s turning, you can do some pretty awesome things with it."
Finally, Google is getting set to launch its latest mobile operating system, though developers are stuck on one key point - which dessert to nickname it. Creators are asking for your suggestions. The name has to start with the letter N. You can submit your suggestions at android.com.